Cabinet and Shadow experience

Dizzy has been looking at the real-world experience of those Conservatives and Lib Dems in the Cabinet and their Labour shadows, the former in response to a comment at his site regarding his initial reporting of just the "shadows" category, sourced from Richard Littlejohn (though he provides no link to this).

Here they are in full, with the added explanation that a SpAd is a special adviser, and I think a Wonk is a so-called ministerial bag carrier, being a loose variation on the general definition here.

 First, here is the worldly experience of the coalition Cabinet before being politicians.

• David Cameron - Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications (7 years)
• Nick Clegg - Foreign Correspondent
• William Hague - Management consultant McKinsey & Company
• George Osborne - CCHQ Wonk
• Ken Clarke - Barrister QC
• Theresa May - Bank of England, financial consultant
• Liam Fox - GP, Civilian Army Medical Officer and Divisional Surgeon with St John Ambulance
• Vince Cable - Economics lecturer, Chief Economist, Royal Dutch Shell
• Iain Duncan-Smith - British Army Officer, Scots Guard
• Chris Huhne - Economic journalist, City entrepreneur, MD of Fitch IBCA
• Andrew Lansley - Civil Servant
• Michael Gove - Journalist
• Eric Pickles - Unknown
• Philip Hammond - Director of Speywood Medical Limited, Castlemead Ltd, Castelmead Home. Consu1ltant World Bank.
• Caroline Spelman - National Union Farmers, lobbyist
• Andrew Mitchell - UN Peacekeeper, British Army Royal Tank Regiment, Investment Bank Lazard, Manager and Financial Controller at Touche Ross & Co, Audit Manager at Storehouse PLC, Finance Director at W H Everett & Son Ltd, Senior Strategy Advisor for Accenture
• Jeremy Hunt - English language teacher in Japan, IT PR company, Profile PR
• Owen Paterson - Sales Director and Managing Director of British Leather Company, Director of Parsons and Sons (leather company)
• Michael Moore - Accountant
• Cheryl Gillan - Marketing consultant, Ernst & Young, marketing director with Kidsons Impey
• Baroness Warsi - Lawyer
• Lord Strathclyde - Hereditary Peer
• George Young - Economic adviser to Post Office Corporation
• Francis Maude - Criminal lawyer
• Dominic Grieve QC - Barrister
• Patrick McLoughlin - farmer, coal miner

Now, here's the run down of the Shadow Cabinet members' worldly experience.

• Ed Miliband - Wonk/SpAd
• Harriet Harman - Political campaign lawyer
• Ed Balls - Leader writer (4 years), SpAd
• Douglas Alexander - Solicitor(six months)
• Yvette Cooper - Journalist (2 years)
• Sadiq Khan - Political campaign lawyer
• Jim Murphy - Student politics
• John Denham - Student politics, political advocacy.
• Liam Byrne - Merchant Bank (Rothchilds), Accenture consultant
• John Healey - Trade Unions
• Andy Burnham - SpAd
• Caroline Flint - Local Government
• Maria Eagle - Solicitor
• Meg Hillier - Journalist (not for long)
• Mary Creagh - Charity work
• Shaun Woodward - BBC researcher/producer doing crap telly.
• Ann McKechin - Solicitor (7 years)
• Peter Hain - Trade Union researcher
• Ivan Lewis - Voluntary sector campaigner
• Tessa Jowell - Social worker and administrator for a charity.
• Angela Eagle - Trade Union
• Baroness Royall of Blaisdon - SpAd
• Rosie Winterton - SpAd, lobbyist
• Hilary Benn - Trade Union
• Lord Bassam of Brighton - Social worker, professional squatter
• Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC - Political campaign lawyer
• Tony Lloyd - Lecturer (2 years), MP for 28 years

As Dizzy points out, via his two posts, there is a huge difference between the two groups. How can Labour relate to how the real world works and how real people have to live their lives when nearly all of their portfolio-ed MPs (and the vast majority of their backbenchers, I believe) have little or no experience of that world out there?

If there is any kind of class divide, it is surely that and not the artificial "Eton toff" divide that Labour dishonestly portray as a Conservative disconnect from ordinary people. In reality it is Labour who are disconnected from (most of) the rest of us, which explains their "on another planet" style that so often breaks through the spun lines they are supposed to be parroting but don't really understand and frequently get wrong.

Austin (on) Powers

Austin Mitchell meets Tory Bear? Surely not!

The long-serving Labour MP Austin Mitchell has issues with Ed Miliband's appointments to the Shadow Cabinet, including Alan Johnson as shadow chancellor. He starts well enough, and I can understand and agree with both these sentiments...

"The PLP dealt you a poor hand in the Shadow Cabinet shower. No reason for turning a problem into a disaster."

 Then he goes a bit egocentric...

"You should have consulted me."

Why him, of all people? He continues a little later with...

"There’s now more talent on the backbenches – me, Blunkett, Hain, Darling, Woodward, and Straw."

Note who is first in that list: "me"!

Oh well, I'm sure he's only trying to be helpful to the new Dear Leader!

Other Shadow positions

Some junior shadow ministerial positions and personal secretary appointments have now been announced.

The dozen named today are: Rachel Reeves, Johnny Reynolds, Tom Greatrex, Luciana Berger and Gloria De Piero, who have been given junior positions; also some longer serving MPs including Diane Abbott, Wayne David, Andy Slaughter, Karen Buck and Alison Sebeck have been given roles and Chuka Umunna and Anne McGuire have been appointed as private parliamentary secretaries (PPS) to Ed Miliband.

This means that, apart from Ed-M's own brother who has opted to step down from front-line politics, all the unsuccessful party leadership contenders have now been given jobs on the Labour front benches.

It seems that Phil Woolas can now be added to the above list; though as Political Betting shows, this looks like a bad choice, especially for the Home Office shadow team!

Shadow Cabinet elections

Here, in alphabetical order of surname, are the nineteen Labour MPs who have been elected to be appointed by party leader Ed Miliband to vacant posts within his Shadow Cabinet (six posts are already filled, including the Shadow Leader himself, hence just the 19 vacancies):

• Douglas Alexander
• Ed Balls
• Hilary Benn
• Andy Burnham
• Liam Byrne
• Yvette Cooper
• Mary Creagh
• John Denham
• Angela Eagle
• Maria Eagle
• Caroline Flint
• John Healey
• Meg Hillier
• Alan Johnson
• Tessa Jowell
• Sadiq Khan
• Ivan Lewis
• Ann McKechin
• Jim Murphy

 Nothing very exciting there, though it is interesting to see the return of Caroline Flint to the front bench, also that all surnames begin with a letter from the first half of the alphabet - there are no N's to Z's at all. The eagle-eyed (ahem!) will also have noticed two Eagle's: perhaps they are "high fliers" in the party? They are twins, I understand. Well, at least it's consistent with the Miliband brothers and Mr & Mrs Balls - just keeping it in the family!

It is notable that all of those in the list were on the former Labour government's payroll (eighteen ministers and a whip), so there isn't exactly anything of Ed Miliband's so-called - and oft-stated in his conference speech - "new generation" about any of them.

As the Telegraph's Toby Young mentions, they are all white apart from Sadiq Khan, apparently nearly half are Oxford or Cambridge educated, and only a minority of them went to comprehensive schools.

Guido reports that Jack Straw has his own "interesting" views on the (Shadow) Labour Cabinet in general.

UPDATE: We now know who has been appointed to which post, as well as the six incumbents, as follows:

• Leader of the Opposition     Rt. Hon. Ed Miliband MP
• Deputy Leader and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development     Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP
• Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer     Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Minister for Women and Equalities     Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department     Rt Hon Ed Balls MP
• Chief Whip     Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Election Coordinator     Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP
• Shadow Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice (with responsibility for political and constitutional reform)     Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions     Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills     Rt Hon John Denham MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Health     Rt Hon John Healey MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government     Rt Hon Caroline Flint MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Defence     Rt Hon Jim Murphy
• Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change     Meg Hillier MP
• Shadow Leader of the House of Commons     Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Transport     Maria Eagle MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs     Mary Creagh MP
• Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury     Angela Eagle MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for orthern Ireland     Rt Hon Shaun Woodward MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland     Ann McKechin MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Wales     Rt Hon Peter Hain MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport     Ivan Lewis MP
• Shadow Leader of the House of Lords     Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
• Shadow Minister for the Olympics     Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP
• Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office     Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP
• Lords Chief Whip     Lord Bassam of Brighton
• Shadow Attorney-General     Baroness Scotland

There are some interesting choices in who is to face whom across the Dispatch Box, such as Alan Johnson to face George Osborne, Yvette Cooper (also taking over Women and Equalities from Harriet Harman, note!) to face William Hague, Sadiq Khan opposite Ken Clarke, Ed Balls against Theresa May (Balls is the stronger but loses out by not having Ms May's taste in shoes), Andy Burnham shadowing Michael Gove, and Caroline Flint taking on the might of Eric Pickles.

Even David Jones MP is pleased (I think!) at the news of Peter Hain's appointment.

It looks like interesting times lie ahead!